In the last few days, my Blog has received a number of visits from Google after people searched for the term “Aldo Landucci.” One of my readers had posted an email he received from a “Aldo Landucci” in an article I wrote about domain scams. Since I don’t have any evidence that this is a scam, I decided to give it a separate blog post.
I know of many people who have received the same (or at least a similar) email, which seem to be targeting the acquisition of .net domain names. I don’t know if the person is closing deals, replying to emails, or if it’s even a real person, but I wanted to let you know that a lot of people have received the emails, so don’t get your hopes raised too high if you happen to get one, too.
Incidentally, Justin Godfrey, the former owner of EscrowDNS wrote a post on DNForum about this email since it mentions the company he founded. According to Justin, “It’s come to my attention that someone is sending out emails offering to purchase domain names and then suggesting to use escrowdns.com as a potential escrow service. I have also received an email from this person as well and do not know if they are scammers or if they are legit buyers, at any rate, Escrowdns.com is in no way affiliated with this person.”
Below is the text of an email I’ve seen used by this person. Feel free to let us know if you’ve closed a deal with this person or at least if you’ve had further conversations with “him.”
“Dear Sirs,
I’d be interested in a possible purchase of your domain xxxxxxxxxxxx.net ; please, let me know if you wish to sell and your best asking price for a possible quick deal or, at least, your price expectations around whom negotiating.
I’m serious and I can guarantee a smooth transaction closed through EscrowDns.com or any other authorized domain brokerage services or, if you’re a verified paypal.com member, I can pay in advance through them, no problem. You’d transfer the domain in my hands only at payment confirmed, we’d discuss these details in a second time.
Just for your curiosity, I’m acquiring few generic domains to develop with targeted content in the next months during my spare time so, if you’ve other domains no longer useful to you, kindly send me a list to talk about a possible sale of the same, I guarantee a quick reply in any case.
Kind regards
Mr. Aldo Landucci
Email: aldo@nym.hush.com”
Boy is that a letdown 🙁 I received that same email Sunday July 4th at 7:22PM which I thought was kind of an odd time – Europe would likely be going to sleep as they have to work the next day and yet in the US it was a national holiday. Besides, how often do I get domain inquiries on a Sunday night? As well, I could find no reference to the name / email combination with a simple Google search. Yes, the domain this individual was interested in was an exercise-related .Net. I responded but have not heard back yet. I also thought it was unusual to inquire about the price when it is clearly stated in the Whois though I have had other buyers do the same perhaps just hoping to negotiate a better deal. Oh well, thanks for the heads up.
Wow – you totally own that keyword! Have you considered slapping up a few ads for the shoes by that name on your blog?
Just kidding 🙂 ..
many scam artists use hush mail
We got one of those also over the weekend Elliot. We ignored it.
http://www.dnforum.com/f77/escrowdns-com-being-used-potential-purchase-emails-2-thread-424631.html
We received same email 2 times.
We replied first email!
When we received same email about our another domain name, we did not reply it.
Now I understand this is really scam!
Many people received same email, lol!
Hmmm … I received several identical inquires a few days apart on my two .org geos … from someone else.